Tim Wildman is president of the American Family Association
Ed Vitagliano The mission of AFA is to inform,
Tim Wildmon equip and activate individuals and families to
Ed Vitagliano strengthen the moral foundations of American culture and give aid to the church here and abroad.
Tim Wildmon In its task of fulfilling the Great
Ed Vitagliano Commission, AFA upholds the truth that all
Tim Wildmon human beings, including the, unborn, are
Ed Vitagliano created in the image of God and
Fred Jackson are worthy of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Ed Vitagliano Thank you for standing with the American Family Association. Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day, huh?
Dr. Jessica Peck Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of
Ed Vitagliano the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. I'm Tim Wildmon, and we appreciate you listening to AFR. Today's Monday, February 23, 2026. And joining me in studio is Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Brother Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon And Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.
Fred Jackson Hey there, Tim.
Fred Helle: US vs Canada hockey match to decide Olympic gold medal
Tim Wildmon all right, folks, I, mean, just one, one story after another. We need to get to today. Things happening in our world. Not all of them are good. Some of them are, not, to borrow from President Trump, not so good.
Ed Vitagliano And some are good, depending on what country you're from.
Tim Wildmon the Olympic, Games. Are they over now?
Ed Vitagliano Have they had a closing ceremony last night, didn't they?
Fred Jackson Yeah, I don't think anybody cares. After the men's hockey championship.
Tim Wildmon Well, I will say this. The culmination of the, ordinary or the most watched event during the Winter Olympics was the US vs Canada hockey match to decide the gold medal.
Ed Vitagliano The men's.
Tim Wildmon The men's. The men's. To decide the gold medal. and, that was a donnybrook, right, Fred?
Fred Jackson Yeah, it was, two really good teams and they fought it out. I mean, it was sudden death over time. a young man by the name of Jack Hughes, playing for the US Team, won the, the winning goal. Two to one was the score. And, it was. I watched some of the highlights last night because, unfortunately, because of the time difference, Sunday morning at 7:30, that's when it was live. That's when it was live. And hockey, fans like Ed and I and several others in the building
Tim Wildmon here, you had to decide, between church and hockey.
Fred Jackson And you can only.
Tim Wildmon Who won, Fred, for you.
Fred Jackson Well, I went to church, but I was telling you guys during our story meeting, I was sitting in Sunday school and this phone started to blow up.
Tim Wildmon Okay. And you had to look at it. I had to look down and see who was winning.
Fred Jackson Somebody was giving me a kind of blow by blow.
Tim Wildmon A fellow Christian who did not, who
Fred Jackson felt ill. Well, I'm about to talk. I'm going to give them grace. They were going to the late service.
Tim Wildmon Okay, okay. I'm just kidding.
Ed Vitagliano Now he's not talking about me. I was a church.
Tim Wildmon I just want to make that clear.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I just, I want to make that perfectly clear.
Tim Wildmon You went to church as normal, right?
Ed Vitagliano I went to church as normal. My wife and I go to the 8 o' clock service, the early service, and then I teach Sunday school. So I was a bit frosted when I found out that there the game started at 7:10am Right. but that's because of the, the time difference. But as Fred's pointing out, I was also on the thread with several other guys in the building who did not go to church, at least at the time the game was on. Right.
Tim Wildmon They may have gone later, but, but not at the time the game was on. So, but anyway, the US won in sudden and sudden death. I mean it was.
Fred Jackson Yeah. And the way they do it in the Olympics is there are three players, three forwards, on each team, and the goalie. So, when that happens, it is wide open, what we call wide open hockey. I mean, these are skating back and forth because there's not as much resistance. And it's all about, you know, you know, getting that first goal. And the guy, as I mentioned, who scored, for the United States, that winning goal was a young man by the name of Jack Hughes, who paid a bitter price to be on the ice to score that goal. Because if you're watching even the highlights, he was two teeth less by the time the game was over. He was still bleeding when he was celebrating this win. But he did a great interview with, I, guess it was somebody from NBC, right after the game. And I was impressed with what he had to say. He said, this wasn't about me, this was about the United States of America. Cut number 15, Jack.
Dr. Jessica Peck The first gold medal for the United States in 46 years and you delivered it. Can you just describe the emotions of
Tim Wildmon this moment right now? This is all about our country right now.
Dr. Jessica Peck I love the usa.
Tim Wildmon I love my teammates.
Dr. Jessica Peck It's unbelievable.
Fred Jackson The USL hockey brotherhood is so strong
Tim Wildmon and we had so much support from ex players.
Dr. Jessica Peck I'm so proud to be American today. this was such an incredible game to grind out.
Tim Wildmon I mean, you're bleeding right through it
Dr. Jessica Peck just looking at you right now.
Ed Vitagliano Can you just talk about how difficult
Dr. Jessica Peck this gold medal was to win? Unbelievable. Game by Hellebuck.
Tim Wildmon He was our best player tonight by a mile.
Dr. Jessica Peck Unbelievable game. Unreal game by our team. That's American hockey right there.
Ed Vitagliano You not only have that as a reminder, you get that as a reminder, too.
Dr. Jessica Peck Did that just show about this game?
Tim Wildmon Just m. I'm lucky I'm from the best country in the world.
Fred Jackson We got great dentists there, too, so.
Tim Wildmon We got great dentists there, too. That's funny.
Ed Vitagliano It was. What I loved about that is that he was. He did not say that he was embarrassed to be from America. Not all the U.S. olympic, teammates. Now, I'm talking about the hot hockey. I'm talking about some of the other sports. There were some in interviews that. That knocked the US and their own country. Their own country.
Jack Hughes says he loves the United States during interview ahead of Olympics
And listen, we've got our problems, but I said this, you know, a week or so ago. If the US Is paying for you to go to and, and train and then compete and go to the, you know, the Olympics, just don't talk politics when you're interviewed. Just talk about the sports. And then when you get home, you can. You're free agent. You can say whatever. That's part of what's great about the country. But it was very refreshing to hear Jack Hughes, unapologetically say, I love the United States. I love my country. And all these other athletes love their country, their countries, and, as they. As they should. None of those countries are perfect either.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson So, yeah, for the most part, it's NHL players, who play. Halibuk, who played the great Goldie for the United States, plays, for Winnipeg, one of my favorite teams. And my only message to Mr. Hellebuck is you better play as well when you get home.
Tim Wildmon To win a home. As you did in the Olympics.
Fred Jackson As you did in the Olympics.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I'll tell you that. So the, So the U.S. wins the gold, Canada wins the silver, and, there was some other good hockey teams.
Ed Vitagliano Well, Finland, I think, won the bronze.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, you got to keep.
Ed Vitagliano Well, the U.S. and Canada each made it to this final by winning in overtime against another country. So there were a lot of good teams playing. And, it's. It's a. It's a fun sport to watch when you're. When the Olympics are on.
Fred Jackson I think it's going to be great for hockey. the last time the United States won The gold was 46 years ago.
Ed Vitagliano It was 1980. When the college kids beat the Soviet Union. Yes, at the time, probably. Yeah. Miracle on ice.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson I was in Bible school in Springfield, Missouri, and I did watch that game.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson Here's what's interesting. Yesterday's game was 22nd February, 46 years to the day.
Ed Vitagliano To the day.
Tim Wildmon Oh, really?
Fred Jackson To the day. Wow, that's amazing. And when that big win in 1980 for the United States, hockey just took off in this country.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah.
Fred Jackson Just took off. And I'm hoping the same thing happens again.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Fred: So the winter, uh, Olympic Games are over now
All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio. So the winter, Olympic Games are over now, and they've been held, obviously, if you paid any attention at all, in Milan, Italy. And I don't know where they, where they got a schedule four years from now. Do you know if they said yet?
Ed Vitagliano I don't know.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right. what's your first other story, Fred?
There are millions of people affected by this winter storm in the Northeast
Fred Jackson First other story. Well, the folks up in the Northeast are undergoing, what we call a nor'.
Tim Wildmon Easter. Judgment of God.
Fred Jackson Nor'. Easter. it's not good. there are millions of people affected by this. They are under orders to basically stay at home. Don't even try to get out, because in some places, over 20 inches of snow, high winds, winds are coming down.
Tim Wildmon These are blizzard conditions.
Fred Jackson Oh, absolutely. it's a cyclone. Bomb or bomb cyclone or something. They're calling it like that.
Tim Wildmon That.
Fred Jackson And of course, because m. The major networks are based in NewSong York. You're getting a lot of coverage today on this. but it's, it's, it's bad and it's not over yet.
Tim Wildmon Well, it's probably affecting, you know, a fifth of the country's population.
Fred Jackson Yeah, I would guess 40 million. 40 million people.
Tim Wildmon Okay, maybe, maybe not a fifth, but
Fred Jackson a bunch of folks.
Tim Wildmon a lot of people. A lot of our fellow Americans going through this. Massachusetts, Maine.
Fred Jackson Massachusetts, Maine, NewSong York City, Vermont,
Tim Wildmon all the way down Philadelphia.
Fred Jackson And they say even some areas of North Carolina are being affected by this. West Virginia, Virginia.
Ed Vitagliano Now, when you say it's not over yet, I'm looking at one of the, news, broadcasts that we have streaming in our own studio here. It looked like there was another storm coming from the West. Is that more snow?
Fred Jackson This is going to hang around a while.
Ed Vitagliano Okay.
Fred Jackson the worst of it is hurt in certain areas right now. But you know what? If you were in NewSong York, you could get a job shoveling snow. they were hiring people.
Ed Vitagliano You mean the city government pays people?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano 20, 1 bucks an hour.
Fred Jackson The socialist communist Mayor Mamdani, offering people up to 20 bucks an hour. However, there's a stipulation. If you wanted to show up to work hourly to shovel snow, you had a show id,
Ed Vitagliano five pieces of ID or something. When you first sign up.
Fred Jackson When you first sign up, they want to know that you're there legally.
Tim Wildmon I thought the Democrats didn't believe in id.
Ed Vitagliano Not for voting.
Tim Wildmon Well, I thought it was racist.
Ed Vitagliano Well, only when you're talking about voting, not shoveling snow.
Tim Wildmon So, we all heard this expression I'm about to use before. Let me make sure I understand this. You're saying that in NewSong York City that you can get a job, a temporary job, shoveling snow.
Tim Wildmon But in order to meet the application requirements, you have to show id. That is you are who you say you are. However, if you want to go vote, then you don't have to show an id. Is that. Or at least you don't have to show.
Ed Vitagliano Or at least a register. It depends on the state. Some, you don't have to show an ID to. But Democrats, the register.
Tim Wildmon A lot of Democrats do say that requiring a, an ID to vote is, is discriminatory.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon And, and is, is Jim, Crow 2.0. Yeah. So what's the saying now? Jim Snow.
Ed Vitagliano Jim Snow 2.0.
Tim Wildmon this is Jim Snow 2.0.
Ed Vitagliano Listen, I, I'm fine with them. If the city's going to pay people to. These are called emergency snow shovelers.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Okay, so they're like, you know, the city's got the plows, but they need other people to, you know, help with, you know, shoveling, getting some of the smaller areas opened. I think it smart idea to have these emergency snow shovelers and to know who's doing it because you're paying them out of the city's, tax funds. So you want to make sure that these people aren't signing up and then going to Dunkin Donuts instead of shoveling. So that's fine.
Tim Wildmon How are they going to tell that anyway?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I, there may be some way where they've got to, you know, take pictures of what they've shoveled. I'm not sure how they handle it.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano But I think it's a smart idea for them to know, and for you to have to sign up because it's not cheap amounts of money that they're going to be paying out where
Tim Wildmon you need robots, am I right?
Ed Vitagliano Well, yeah, as long as they're only armed with a shovel.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Well, this is going to shut down the Northeast for a few days anyway.
Fred Jackson Well, tremendous impact on the whole country when it comes to flights. Flight Aware is reporting just thousands of flights already canceled.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson So this has an impact on the whole nation.
Ed Vitagliano It has a ripple effect on the rest of the country.
Fred Jackson Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Power. A lot of people out of power. Yeah, power.
Steve Jordal texted me saying the 2030 Olympics are in the French Alps
What are you going to say?
Ed Vitagliano I was going to say, by the way, are we done with this story here? Because, Steve Jordal was listening. He, texted me and said the 2030 Olympics is in the French Alps, France.
Tim Wildmon Is that where the French Alps are in, in France?
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson As opposed to.
Tim Wildmon Well, thank you for clearing that up for us.
Ed Vitagliano Well, okay, wise guys, both of you.
Tim Wildmon All right. you know, NewSong York City is in the state of NewSong York. Did you realize that?
Ed Vitagliano okay. You know, I try to, I try to help, try to help our listeners.
Tim Wildmon I couldn't resist. I'm sorry.
Ed Vitagliano I'm saying it's right here. This is what it says, the French Alps, comma, France. So your problem is with the Olympic, the International Olympic Committee putting that up like that.
Fred Jackson Yeah. And North Americans will suffer again because that means another seven hour time zone.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, this, this is. Yeah, I'm just gonna have, to make sure I'm sick that Sunday. That's a long way away.
Tim Wildmon Like four years.
New York City is preparing for its first major snowstorm since 2017
All right, well, anyway, this, this, this blizzard, what is it? NewSong York City on the first Blizzard since 2017. They were just. There was still snow left that unmelted from two weeks ago.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, the big ice storm that went
Tim Wildmon before they, before this happened. before this happens. So I don't know. we'll see. but I can't imagine. You're gonna have to find some young men, to shut. Maybe young ladies. But you can't just, get out there and shovel for six, seven hours.
Fred Jackson Oh, no.
Ed Vitagliano I mean, you can't do it for six. And I've shared this story, I think during the, during the blizzard of 78, I was, I was going to Boston College. That, that was that big storm. I forget how much snow it dumped. But my roommates and I, we said, let's go make some money. And we, you know, whatever, we borrowed some snow shovels and we went door to door, you know, 20 bucks and we'll shovel your walkway and your sidewalk. And we lasted about three hours because that heavy wet snow. Now listen, I was playing ball all, you know, all the time, very, very active. And I was wiped out after three hours because you're trudging through the snow back and forth. So I don't know anybody can do that. For seven or eight hours there, that's a man's man. That's Chuck Norris level manhood. If you can shovel snow, that much snow for seven or eight hours.
Tim Wildmon Well, yeah, and, ah, you have to
Fred Jackson be in really good shape. There was a warning. They had a doctor interviewed this morning on Fox and Friends. And just warning older folks, I've seen it so many times, you'll drop dead. Heart attacks caused by this. So there's a caution there. If you can hopefully stay at home. Not too much in the way of power losses. Just stay at home until this gets through.
Tim Wildmon You know, there's gonna be some stories years from now about babies being born. yes. At home today and tomorrow. Because listen, these people you're talking about. I know, I know the folks in the Northeast are hardy, right? You know, and they're, they're used to winters that can be brutal, but this is extraordinary. And they can't even get the streets, clean with the soap plows before the snow piles up again. They're telling people, stay home, don't have electricity. Ambulances can't get everywhere.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon so you're going to have, you know, the ambulances are probably going to have to pick and choose, you know, where can we go? So I'm just saying I'm gonna bet some, some babies are born and that,
Ed Vitagliano that's a scary thought. Where your wife goes into labor and. Yeah, just like, what do I do?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I don't know. You know, they have YouTube videos. Do it yourself. Have you seen these?
Ed Vitagliano Well, you mean with home?
Tim Wildmon D, do it yourself.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, D, D Y I D
Tim Wildmon Y I D, I Y can type in D Y I. Childbirth.
Ed Vitagliano diy. Okay.
Tim Wildmon Baby delivery.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, but that, but you have to have a, power to have the Internet.
Tim Wildmon That's what happens when I do that. Okay, what now you got to have
Ed Vitagliano power and you have the Internet.
Tim Wildmon Just go old school. No, I'm talking midwife. Do you understand? Do you?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Ah, YouTube video.
Tim Wildmon You know what I'm saying? I'm sorry. Yes. M. I'm not. I don't mean to disparage you at all.
Ed Vitagliano I'm asking today, but that's all right.
Tim Wildmon Do you know what I'm talking about?
Ed Vitagliano You. So I'll just go home.
Tim Wildmon All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay.
You can look up YouTube videos to deliver your baby if you've got power
I'm gonna type, baby delivery. Do it yourself. That's what I'm talking about. You.
Ed Vitagliano Could you make it.
Tim Wildmon Do it.
Ed Vitagliano I don't know if you want to look at that.
Tim Wildmon Well, true. Do it yourself.
Ed Vitagliano And while you're doing that, I was making was. Yeah. You can look up a YouTube video to deliver your baby if you've got power and Internet.
Tim Wildmon Well, that's true. Then you're out. You're completely on. Out of luck. Huh?
Ed Vitagliano Now you're opening the window and saying,
Tim Wildmon hey, you're just gonna have to.
Fred Jackson We need your help.
Tim Wildmon Talk about figuring out as you go along.
Fred Jackson I can just imagine husbands looking at those videos. Honey, I ain't doing that. Can you hold on for a while?
Tim Wildmon First thing that comes up on do it yourself. Baby delivery.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon It says, ah, assisted or emergency. Quote, do it yourself. Child delivery carries high risk of complications. That's a bad situation. Anyway, it says first thing you need to do is call 911. Yeah. To avoid having to deliver the baby. But in this situation I'm talking about with this blizzard and the ambulances. Can't get out, babe. And you can't get your car out of your driveway to get to the hospital, probably a lot of folks planned on, you know, I don't know, go stay at a hotel right by the hospital or something. I don't know. But, anyway, you can look up videos on how to deliver babies yourself.
Fred Jackson To your point. To your point, though, right there.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I'm looking at this at home.
Tim Wildmon Unmedicated water birth.
Fred Jackson no, our birth story.
Tim Wildmon So you can do it. Can be done.
Fred Jackson The one good thing about snowstorms, blizzards, you get plenty of warning that it's coming.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's true.
Fred Jackson So nowadays, if you're nine months along.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Fred Jackson You. Maybe you want to get to a hotel within walking distance of the hospital.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah.
Three old guys trying to solve problem of delivering babies right without. Back in my day. All right, so you're listening to today's issues
All right, so you're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Thanks for listening to afr. Tim. Ed, Fred. nobody.
Ed Vitagliano Three old guys trying to solve this problem of delivering babies right without.
Tim Wildmon Back in my day. Ah, back in my day. All right, Fred, what's your next story?
Former DEA acting administrator says it's not safe to travel to Mexico right now
Fred Jackson Well, in the midst of everything else going on yesterday, some videos started to show up of what's going on in the Puerto Vallarta area of Mexico. What happened is Mexican authorities took out one of the cartel leaders and their followers. Cartel followers just, went ballistic in that area. They basically. It looked like a war zone in Beirut or something like that. in Puerto Vallarta yesterday, people staying. It's a resort area of Mexico, and you have people there from all over the world taking a vacation, and they were told, stay in your hotels. Do not go outside. because the cartel members, they were. There were explosions on buses. there were warnings in airports. Airlines canceled flights into Puerto Vallarta because of the danger there. And, Fox this morning spoke to former DEA acting administrator Derek Maltz and says basically it's not safe to travel to Mexico right now. Cut number eight.
Tim Wildmon Well, let me just go back to one thing to make it clear. President Trump, before he got elected, said placing the safety and security of Americans would be the top priority.
Dr. Jessica Peck And he's a man of action.
Tim Wildmon So to answer your question about the Americans, no, it's very dangerous in Mexico. It's been dangerous there for many years. Right now this is a wake up call for the world about the treachery of the Mexican cartels.
Dr. Jessica Peck That's why President Trump declared them as terrorists.
Tim Wildmon Would the Americans want to go visit, you know, the middle of Al Qaeda central? Right. So right now, what we're witnessing, especially on social media, it highlights the level of control and power the cartels have in Mexico. They're blowing up buses, they're shutting down roads, there's blockades in up to 20 states. They're burning buildings. Right.
Fred Jackson Yeah. The United States State Department has issued a warning to Americans. shelter in place, get a safe place wherever you are in Mexico right now. Because the cartels, you mean, all over the country are retaliating. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Puerto Vallarta, is that the way you pronounce it, is a, it's a beach resort, very famous in, on the Pacific coast of, of Mexico. And yeah, this is going to hurt tourism at least temporarily, probably all over Mexico.
Ed Vitagliano I would go down there right now. I wouldn't go down there.
Tim Wildmon Even before this, we, Allison and, I, we've been to Cancun many times, over our lives, and we've really, really enjoyed. It's a beautiful place. And, and, and the, it's. But I wouldn't go today. Yeah. You know, because of the, you know, maybe in the future. I'm not saying. But, it's just like these drug cartels, I guess they, they, they, they run the government or I, say run the government. They don't. Evidently they don't completely run the government because the government's at war with the drug cartels. But I mean, they have more power than many government officials and they assassinate the ones that they don't like.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Mayors and such.
Tim Wildmon They do, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Sometimes in horrifying ways. And the part of the problem for Mexico is the country is very corrupt. So you have political leaders on all levels who are basically informants for the drug cartels.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So a lot of corruption.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And, in the country of Mexico, Mexican people are great.
Ed Vitagliano The, they got to live under this.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano The Mexican people.
Tim Wildmon But it's a cycle that's hard to break.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Once the, once the mafia, so to speak, gets control of the, of the city block, they don't give it back very easily.
Ed Vitagliano Plus, the money they make is a huge part of the Mexican economy. You mean drugs, Drugs, human trafficking, all that?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Anyway, yeah, that's. So the people there that are vacationing are trying to get out, but the airport's closed and. Or at least the American and, Canadian Airlines are not flying in there right now. We'll be back momentarily. Stay with us.
Ed Vitagliano The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle. Vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app, we would
Fred Jackson like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com.
Tim Wildmon This is today's issues.
Ed Vitagliano Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of today's issues.
If you're ever caught in a blizzard, here's what you need to do
Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Fred. In a few minutes, Ed's going to be going over what he's found out about do it do it yourself baby delivery. which we've explored on our YouTube search here.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I'll create a list of,
Tim Wildmon if you would, and then put that on our Facebook for folks, things to do. Well, yeah, we're talking.
Fred Jackson If you're ever caught in a blizzard, here's what you need to do.
Tim Wildmon What do you call do it yourself do it yourself.
Ed Vitagliano Diy.
Tim Wildmon Huh?
Ed Vitagliano Diy.
Tim Wildmon Diy. They're Very popular.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely. We should get in on that.
Tim Wildmon So we. We might. We might do a demonstration of some kind.
Ed Vitagliano well, I'm gonna leave that demonstration for you. I'm doing all the research.
Tim Wildmon Our listeners may be wondering to themselves what in the world brought this subject up? Because Tim usually keeps the show right on track, and somehow he's been, misled by Fred and Ed here. No, what happened was, we were talking about, in all seriousness, the blizzard hitting the northeast right now. And, you know, there are a lot of babies that planned to be born yesterday or today or tomorrow, the next day. And it's got to be just chaos there, you know, because you can't travel when you got 12 inches of snow.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And can the ambulance get their emergency.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Vehicles. So, we're saying what would happen in that situation. And then you mentioned the do it yourself, you know, videos, and we looked it up, and sure enough, there are instructions and videos about how to. How to do that.
Tim Wildmon How to birth a baby at home or in the car or wherever you may be. The mall, whatever.
Ed Vitagliano Dunkin Donuts, you know, whatever.
Tim Wildmon Wherever you may be.
Ed Vitagliano Starbucks.
Dr. Andy Miller is the president of Wesley Biblical Seminary
Tim Wildmon All right, so, All right, let's reset right here. Okay. we have with us in our studio Dr. Andy Miller, who's the president of Wesley Biblical Seminary, based in Jackson, Mississippi. Good morning, Andy.
Dr. Jessica Peck Well, good to see you, Tim. So good to be back.
Tim Wildmon do you know anything about delivering babies at home?
Dr. Jessica Peck Not delivering them at home, but we did do, my. Our third child wasn't born at home, but was born with a midwife in a bathtub. That was pretty cool.
Ed Vitagliano Was it really? You can tell the truth.
Dr. Jessica Peck I will honestly say it was a. It was a beautiful thing because the midwife actually guided me. And then I was like. I was more active. And I'm going to try to not be too graphic here, but I was involved in the process, and it was a beautiful thing. I was the first one to really hold my daughter and put her right with my wife. Is a beautiful moment.
Tim Wildmon So.
Dr. Jessica Peck But not. Not without any other assistance. Right there. My. You know, I was thinking beyond just having the home birth to do diy, birthing is the fact that nine months from now, with the result of these blizzards, there'll be a baby bump.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Be a new baby boomer American family.
Dr. Jessica Peck This is good. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Let's. Let's boost that, birth rate.
Dr. Jessica Peck More blizzards. More blizzards.
Tim Wildmon More babies.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Or more babies born. So, I did get it right. You guys are Based in Jackson, Mississippi. Right.
Dr. Jessica Peck Technically, we're in Ridgeland now.
Ed Vitagliano Ridgeland, which is a suburb.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Just north Ridgeland, Mississippi. Wesley Biblical Seminary. People listen to afr. They know, we promote the ministry that you guys have there. you train. what's your primary purpose?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, yeah. We exist to develop trusted leaders for faithful churches. And while our name shows our theological tradition that we come from the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, we have students from more than 40 denominations and students all over the world. we're able to bring theological education right to students where they are. Most of our students are serving churches right now. in. Most churches in the United States, of course, are served by, pastors who are bi. Vocational. I'm trying to change that language a little bit to say co. Vocational. But it's really this interesting emphasis that we're able to have. Seminaries used to be set up in a way where people would move away, sell their houses, go and live in a place for four years. But really what we can do with zoom and opportunities to engage people in a distributed platform makes it possible for
Tim Wildmon us to 40 different denominations.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, yeah, yeah. We have 600 plus students.
Tim Wildmon All right, I got $10 for you right now. If you can name 20 of them, just go.
Dr. Jessica Peck Okay, I'm glad to.
Name 20 denominations in the next three minutes. You can do it. So you're going to wait
Tim Wildmon Here we go.
Ed Vitagliano So you're going to wait?
Tim Wildmon I'm going to make it. I'm going to make a $20 contribution.
Dr. Jessica Peck Okay.
Tim Wildmon To Wesley Biblical Seminary. If he can, name 20 denominations in the next three minutes, I'll be pretty close.
Ed Vitagliano I thought you meant the students. Name 20 students. So.
Dr. Jessica Peck Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Talking about the denomination.
Dr. Jessica Peck Global Methodist, Independent Methodist, Free Methodist, Protestant, Methodist, Independent Methodist, Salvation Army, Nazarene, Wesleyan, Congregational Methodist, Baptist, Southern Baptist.
Ed Vitagliano You can do it.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, yeah. Assemblies of God, Church of God, Anderson Church of God, Cleveland.
Tim Wildmon Six more Church Ah.
Dr. Jessica Peck Of God, Cleveland. Then I have Anglican Church of North America, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the,
Ed Vitagliano Two more.
Dr. Jessica Peck So who else do I have? Oh, Pilgrim Holiness Tradition, the Primitive Methodist.
Ed Vitagliano That's it. You made it.
Dr. Jessica Peck British Methodist Church.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Dr. Jessica Peck There we go.
Ed Vitagliano That's impressive.
Tim Wildmon What about the, Snake Handlers of America?
Dr. Jessica Peck Well, I bet I have a few of those, too.
Tim Wildmon Do you accredit them?
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, I forgot all the African American Tradition. Kojik, Amy, Amy Z. All those groups.
Tim Wildmon Oh, the African American denomination.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Did you say Pilgrim? What?
Dr. Jessica Peck Pilgrim Holiness.
Tim Wildmon I've never heard of this.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, it's a Northeastern group. They're still. They. They combine. Most of them combine with the West. the Wesleyan church? Yeah, about 40 years ago.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Dr. Jessica Peck but, there's still a little group of people.
There are churches where they handle snakes. Would you go to one
Ed Vitagliano Nice, nice shout out though, to Showa snake handlers of America.
Tim Wildmon There are churches where they handle snakes. Have you heard about this?
Ed Vitagliano Of course I've heard of it.
Tim Wildmon Have you ever seen terrifying?
Ed Vitagliano No, I've never seen.
Tim Wildmon Would you go to one?
Ed Vitagliano No.
Dr. Jessica Peck There is the Pentecostal holiness tradition, you know, uses the end of Mark. there's variants of it. I should say so. They might, but some of them would say it's not all of them. But you know, the last part of Mark talks about snake handling, but that's been shown to be, later variant that was added on, you know, centuries later. So people use that tradition.
Ed Vitagliano Let me just give you just a little personal experience. So back when I was pastoring, okay, Working here full time, I was co.
Fred Jackson a.
Ed Vitagliano What did you call it?
Dr. Jessica Peck A co. Vocation.
Ed Vitagliano Co vocational. And I went to visit a young man who was trying to win to the Lord. And he invited me into his apartment and he, had snakes. And so I'm talking to him, he said, I want to. I want to show you one of my snakes. I said, no, that's. That's okay. I don't. I don't want to see it. And he brings out a rattlesnake.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh my goodness.
Tim Wildmon A rattlesnake in a jar.
Ed Vitagliano No, in his hands.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh my.
Ed Vitagliano And I said, I'm, just going to call him John.
Tim Wildmon Say what you said.
Ed Vitagliano no, I said, john, get that snake away from. He says he. If you don't make any sudden moves, he won't bite. And then he let it down on the couch. And I got up and I said, dude, put it away or I'm. I'm gone. He's.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Dr. Jessica Peck Now me too.
Ed Vitagliano He got. Just to show you, he got bit twice over the years, once in the face with. By a rattlesnake.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh my. I would be done.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Hard to feel sorry for him though.
Ed Vitagliano So when you ask me what, I go to a church handling service. Nursery. Bob.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Sorry I asked that question.
Ed Vitagliano I don't blame you.
Tim Wildmon You and I've known each other a long time. I never knew that. Yeah, that story.
Ed Vitagliano That.
Tim Wildmon That was m. Bring up pts.
Ed Vitagliano Ptsd.
Tim Wildmon They can do that.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Having to recall that story, that is.
Ed Vitagliano I'm gonna have to leave the show for. I'm, have to go eat something.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Buddy Smith: Wesley Biblical Seminary is developing biblical leaders for churches
On a more serious note, what do you. What do you, Tell me what. Who. Who. Our listeners. What do they need to Know about Wesley Biblical Seminary?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, yeah.
Tim Wildmon How can they connect with you guys?
Dr. Jessica Peck Look, if people are looking for a seminary that values and lifts up the authority of scripture and the real promise that exists in the holy life, like emphasizing sanctification, I think we're the seminary for you. And also we have this platform that brings it to people. So that's led to us, just in the last three years, we've more than doubled our size. We have 600 plus students.
Ed Vitagliano this is really important. All joking about snakes aside, this is really important because if America is going to survive and fulfill its promise, the pulpits of America have to be filled with Bible believing, fire breathing, not afraid to preach it. Preachers.
Dr. Jessica Peck That's my new logo.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yes, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano So the seminaries in this country in a lot of denominations and in a lot of places here in this country have gone to the devil.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Okay. They do not believe and teach the, the Bible. They don't believe it. And they're turning out people who are feeling pulpits that are not, they're false shepherds.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano I'm not saying all, I'm just saying a lot of them, they've gone over to promote homosexuality and, and many ways, many paths to God. So what Wesley Biblical Seminary is doing is very important. And it sounds to me, by the way, we're talking to Dr. Andy Miller, President of Wesley Biblical Seminary, that if people Let me. So let me ask if. What if people don't necessarily feel called to the ministry but they want to learn more?
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
Ed Vitagliano You take them.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh yeah, yeah. 100. That's why I say developing trusted leaders for faithful churches. So a lot of our students are coming who are like Sunday school class teachers or local lay leaders in various forms. And that's one of the key things I think that is needed. People want to go deeper and they, they, I think the academic rigor that we provide and we were fully accredited and all those things by the kind of gold standard accrediting bodies. I think people want deep teaching and they want that. So they want that in their preachers, but they want it themselves. So we have a host of programs that people can access from bachelor's, master's, doctoral degrees, but also something called the Wesley Institute, which is emphasizing these non academic programs to give seminary level teaching to people who are lay leaders or just lay members of the church.
Ed Vitagliano Wonderful.
Tim Wildmon All right, how to get in touch with you guys?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, WBS Edu Wesley Biblical Seminary. We'd love for you to Check us out.
Tim Wildmon And so you got how many students now?
Dr. Jessica Peck We have 634 students today.
Tim Wildmon Wow.
Dr. Jessica Peck And your dad was supporting us back when we had 20.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, one of the reasons my dad did that, as you know, is because the way the United Methodist Church was trending and I grew up in the United Methodist Church, as did many of our listeners, and we know what happened to them. They just went totally left wing wacko, and started, I mean, started denying the authority of the scripture.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yep, yep.
Tim Wildmon in many ways. And I don't know, I don't know how to describe the whole story of what happened there. It happened with other denominations too, during the 60s and 70s and, and so my dad, said, well, we need to support a conservative Methodist or a Bible believing Methodist institution. Yeah, yeah, Asbury, and was one and then Wesley Biblical Seminary, another, Asbury in Kentucky. So, you, know to get away, we need to start pushing people of the Methodist tradition and others, as you mentioned here, to where they can go to get the proper training to be a pastor. Do you guys accredit pastor?
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. So we work with all those denominations that have a formal ordination process.
Tim Wildmon Ordination, that's the word I was looking for. So, anyway, so thank God that you guys came along and as I mentioned some others, but man, these,
Ed Vitagliano then our own Buddy Smith hasn't. He worked closely with.
Dr. Jessica Peck Buddy's on our board. He's a wonderful blessing to us. Yeah. So thankful for AFA. AFR's influence on WBS. It's a big part of our day.
Ed Vitagliano You got another $20 coming.
Dr. Jessica Peck I know, 25.
Tim Wildmon I'm gonna have to go atm.
Dr. Jessica Peck Hey, we could do ven.
Tim Wildmon I don't carry cash. I don't do that either. I'm sorry, I'm like old school.
Ed Vitagliano Like what? You're old school but you don't carry cash?
Tim Wildmon I don't. I just go anyway, I'm not trying
Ed Vitagliano to put you on the spot.
Tim Wildmon That's okay.
Ed Vitagliano But you did promise on national radio.
Tim Wildmon I don't even know how much money I have. that's sad, isn't it? I just. Allison, my wife, she does all the bookkeeping.
Dr. Andy Miller: If you rob me, you're very disappointed
Ed Vitagliano So you like walk into random banks and say, do you have some of
Tim Wildmon my money account here?
Fred Jackson Would you check? Thank you.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, thanks.
Ed Vitagliano God bless you all.
Tim Wildmon Dr. Andy Miller, joining us there, president of Wesley Biblical Seminar. Yeah, if, if you're going to rob me, you're going to be very disappointed.
Ed Vitagliano You're going to have to contact someone
Tim Wildmon in charge, somebody else, because, that's,
The United States may attack Iran within days, not weeks, experts say
All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Fred. Fred, what's the next story?
Fred Jackson I tell you what, so much going on in the world right now, and sometimes the really big stories, such as, the United States may attack Iran within days, not weeks. probably, if you had time during the weekend, you heard the reports of the buildup of our military forces in that area in the Indian Ocean. are. We've got at least four squadrons of fighter jets now in places like Jordan. By the way, what I heard this morning, we have a base, the United States has a base in Qatar, and we've asked our. Told our military people there to get out of there. So everything is pointing towards some kind of military action. Former National Security, Council Chief of staff under Trump, Alex Gray, says President Trump has several options to deal with Iran. Cut number seven.
Ed Vitagliano I think the best outcome for the United States here is the president uses a surgical strike to go after the missile program. The terrorist proxies keep them from reconstituting. I really do worry, and I know the president, just based on his history and what he said for the last 10 years, shares this concern, is that if we go in and we do something more, comprehensive, we're potentially going to get dragged into something we can't control. And so I think a strike that is tailored, surgical, targeted, and is very much focused on taking out the most dangerous elements of the regime's tools is most in the interest of the United States.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Now, some people may say, hey, we did a great job in Venezuela with Maduro, so we can do the same thing in Iran. And I don't think you can say that. I don't think it's going to be as simple. Iran is very different than Venezuela.
Tim Wildmon Well, okay, listen, I know Iran, Iran or Iran, however you want to pronounce it. you know, they're one of the worst players on the world stage in terms of their. You know, we've dealt with them for decades. Okay, why are we doing this now? And what is President Trump hoping to accomplish? What is the goals and objectives here?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I think there are two main things, according to my understanding. I'm not privy to any information that anyone else can glean through the news. But the two things that stand out to me are, number one, the, continuing effort of Iran to get a nuclear weapon. Now, we've already hit them once but it sounds to me like they are trying to reconstitute that program. And so President Trump has made it clear, and as have other presidents, but he's the first one to strike them. We're not going to allow Iran, who is maybe the leading, probably the leading, promoter of terrorism around the world, we're not going to allow them to get a nuclear weapon. And number two, the other thing that is maybe, and this answers your question, maybe even a little bit better, Tim, is that Iran seems in the last couple of months or whatever to have been closer than ever before to changing regimes and, and overthrowing the Ayatollah slash Mullah led religious leadership of Iran and maybe having some kind of a pro Western, more free, country. And I think that there's probably consideration that if we strike facets of the government that might encourage the Iranians who are trying to make that regime change, and maybe even the military change their minds and turn against the mullahs. That's all I can think of.
Fred Jackson Well, and to Ed's point, the rebellion that's been going on there, and the reports indicate that the, regime has killed thousands of these protesters. You may remember back a few weeks ago, President Trump won. These protests broke out and they're huge. President Trump said, what? Help is on the way. So, he almost put himself in a position and putting the United States in a position that if we were to back away now, if we were to back away now, it would not be good. Mike Pompeo, the former secretary, of state, he says Iran is not interested really in making a deal. They are not interested. They're talking that way, but in no way are they interested in any caps on their development of nuclear energy and a nuclear weapon. And they're in no way interested in cutting back on their ballistic missile development as well. They remain a very dangerous character in that area of the world. And if the United States was to back down now, no telling what would happen. Our current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is going back to Israel this week within 48 hours, I believe, to have a meeting on this. I think we are headed in the direction of some kind of confrontation.
Tim Wildmon Okay. There is a difference between a, what that fellow was mentioning a moment ago, a surgical strike, which you can do with one warship. Am I right?
Fred Jackson Yeah. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so a surgical strike, which was what he said, which is the least, use of force. I, mean, there's a difference between that and help is on the way. We're going to kill the Leaders that are oppressing you, and we're going to bomb them to oblivion. It's going to be a new day in Iran. You see the, you, ah, those are two different things. Am I right?
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Regime, which one is it we're going to do here?
Ed Vitagliano I think, I think, I think if President Trump is going to do this, going to pull the trigger and attack Iran, I think he wants regime change for the very simple reason that the, the mullahs, because of their religious mania and because of their hatred of Israel and the United States, they are never going to stop wanting to get nuclear weapons and use them against those two countries and probably threaten other countries, in the Middle East. So I think it's going to be the latter. I don't think this is just going to be a surgical strike. We already did this. We already hit them and set them back, and now they have been going full bore to try to reconstitute that nuclear program.
It seems to me what we're about to do requires congressional approval
Tim Wildmon Okay, may I interject something that's not going to be popular with some of our listeners?
Ed Vitagliano Sure.
Tim Wildmon It seems to me what we're about to do requires congressional approval. We're about what you guys have described as an act of war. Now, you might say, well, we haven't had a congressionally approved war since World War II. I don't know. Korean War was a Korean War.
Ed Vitagliano I don't ever declared war, certainly didn't declare it into it.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, maybe. Do you guys see what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon does it matter anymore?
Ed Vitagliano No.
Tim Wildmon okay. It doesn't matter. Whoever the president is gets to do what he wants to.
Ed Vitagliano Well, because of the War Powers act, this was in the wake of Vietnam, where the. Technically, the president is allowed, because things move, circumstances move so quickly. The president is allowed to commit military troops to a conflict and then, inform Congress, but then has 30 days. I think I get this right, 30 or 60. I think it's 30 days to then get congressional approval. Well, we, I don't know that we've had much in the way of congressional approval. But presidents now, whether it's, you know, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, we're allowed to turn the military loose, without congressional approval. But to your point, it is.
Tim Wildmon We're about to go to war with
Ed Vitagliano Iran, but we already hit them.
Tim Wildmon Yes, but that was. Yes. it's a, it's, that's, it's an
Ed Vitagliano act of a war.
Tim Wildmon It's an act of war. It's kind of a blurred line constitutionally, because you don't want your president the commander in chief, you don't certainly don't want his hands tied in the case of a national emergency where we need to respond militarily to some action in the world. But at the same time, if you're going to commit to a regime change and you're sending all these warships to the, Middle east, getting ready to, enact a regime change plan for Iran, then militarily, you're going to just bomb them into glass, basically.
Ed Vitagliano well, I would say targets. I think the targets would be more surgical. I think the possibility was. Certainly would hit their nuclear, development capabilities. But I don't think anything's off the table. I think if we're going to go to. If we're going to go to war and do this, we'll sink their navy, we'll destroy their air force, But I don't think we'll turn Iran into glass because we want the military to say, enough of this. We will perform a coup against the mullahs. And you want the people of Iran m. To be on your side and so you don't destroy their infrastructure.
Tim Wildmon I think if this were a Democrat president gearing up to do this, would our side be saying no? No, Wait a minute. You need congressional report before you get us involved in another foreign war.
Fred Jackson There might be some. But when it comes to Iran, that may be something that is bipartisan. Yes, I do believe.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson I mean, the. The jury's not out anymore. The jury. The jury has come back with. With a full, decision.
Tim Wildmon They're going to know where these mullahs are hiding and try to kill them.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano I personally don't think they should be killing political leaders. Okay. I think they should be taking out military infrastructure, and the nuclear. I don't. I don't believe in. In killing the leaders. Because that. That comes back to bite you.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Oh, antim. right there. You also don't believe in handling rattlesnakes.
Ed Vitagliano No, that's right. The religious expression that can come back bite you, too.
Tim Wildmon See what you did there? Yeah, I see what you did. That came back to bite you. You used it twice.
Ed Vitagliano Yep.
Tim Wildmon Both metaphorically.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely. Because, I'm not going to be doing little. Literally.
Tim Wildmon We shall be back in five minutes with more.
Dr. Jessica Peck The views and opinions expressed in this
Tim Wildmon broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of
Dr. Jessica Peck the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim Wildman is president of the American Family Association
Ed Vitagliano The mission of AFA is to inform,
Tim Wildmon equip and activate individuals and families to
Ed Vitagliano strengthen the moral foundations of American culture and give aid to the church here and abroad.
Tim Wildmon In its task of fulfilling the Great
Ed Vitagliano Commission, AFA upholds the truth that all
Tim Wildmon human beings, including the, unborn, are
Ed Vitagliano created in the image of God and
Fred Jackson are worthy of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Ed Vitagliano Thank you for standing with the American Family Association. Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day, huh?
Dr. Jessica Peck Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of
Ed Vitagliano the American Family Association.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. I'm Tim Wildmon, and we appreciate you listening to AFR. Today's Monday, February 23, 2026. And joining me in studio is Ed Vitagliano. Good morning, Brother Ed.
Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.
Tim Wildmon And Fred Jackson. Good morning, Fred.
Fred Jackson Hey there, Tim.
Fred Helle: US vs Canada hockey match to decide Olympic gold medal
Tim Wildmon all right, folks, I, mean, just one, one story after another. We need to get to today. Things happening in our world. Not all of them are good. Some of them are, not, to borrow from President Trump, not so good.
Ed Vitagliano And some are good, depending on what country you're from.
Tim Wildmon the Olympic, Games. Are they over now?
Ed Vitagliano Have they had a closing ceremony last night, didn't they?
Fred Jackson Yeah, I don't think anybody cares. After the men's hockey championship.
Tim Wildmon Well, I will say this. The culmination of the, ordinary or the most watched event during the Winter Olympics was the US vs Canada hockey match to decide the gold medal.
Ed Vitagliano The men's.
Tim Wildmon The men's. The men's. To decide the gold medal. and, that was a donnybrook, right, Fred?
Fred Jackson Yeah, it was, two really good teams and they fought it out. I mean, it was sudden death over time. a young man by the name of Jack Hughes, playing for the US Team, won the, the winning goal. Two to one was the score. And, it was. I watched some of the highlights last night because, unfortunately, because of the time difference, Sunday morning at 7:30, that's when it was live. That's when it was live. And hockey, fans like Ed and I and several others in the building
Tim Wildmon here, you had to decide, between church and hockey.
Fred Jackson And you can only.
Tim Wildmon Who won, Fred, for you.
Fred Jackson Well, I went to church, but I was telling you guys during our story meeting, I was sitting in Sunday school and this phone started to blow up.
Tim Wildmon Okay. And you had to look at it. I had to look down and see who was winning.
Fred Jackson Somebody was giving me a kind of blow by blow.
Tim Wildmon A fellow Christian who did not, who
Fred Jackson felt ill. Well, I'm about to talk. I'm going to give them grace. They were going to the late service.
Tim Wildmon Okay, okay. I'm just kidding.
Ed Vitagliano Now he's not talking about me. I was a church.
Tim Wildmon I just want to make that clear.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I just, I want to make that perfectly clear.
Tim Wildmon You went to church as normal, right?
Ed Vitagliano I went to church as normal. My wife and I go to the 8 o' clock service, the early service, and then I teach Sunday school. So I was a bit frosted when I found out that there the game started at 7:10am Right. but that's because of the, the time difference. But as Fred's pointing out, I was also on the thread with several other guys in the building who did not go to church, at least at the time the game was on. Right.
Tim Wildmon They may have gone later, but, but not at the time the game was on. So, but anyway, the US won in sudden and sudden death. I mean it was.
Fred Jackson Yeah. And the way they do it in the Olympics is there are three players, three forwards, on each team, and the goalie. So, when that happens, it is wide open, what we call wide open hockey. I mean, these are skating back and forth because there's not as much resistance. And it's all about, you know, you know, getting that first goal. And the guy, as I mentioned, who scored, for the United States, that winning goal was a young man by the name of Jack Hughes, who paid a bitter price to be on the ice to score that goal. Because if you're watching even the highlights, he was two teeth less by the time the game was over. He was still bleeding when he was celebrating this win. But he did a great interview with, I, guess it was somebody from NBC, right after the game. And I was impressed with what he had to say. He said, this wasn't about me, this was about the United States of America. Cut number 15, Jack.
Dr. Jessica Peck The first gold medal for the United States in 46 years and you delivered it. Can you just describe the emotions of
Tim Wildmon this moment right now? This is all about our country right now.
Dr. Jessica Peck I love the usa.
Tim Wildmon I love my teammates.
Dr. Jessica Peck It's unbelievable.
Fred Jackson The USL hockey brotherhood is so strong
Tim Wildmon and we had so much support from ex players.
Dr. Jessica Peck I'm so proud to be American today. this was such an incredible game to grind out.
Tim Wildmon I mean, you're bleeding right through it
Dr. Jessica Peck just looking at you right now.
Ed Vitagliano Can you just talk about how difficult
Dr. Jessica Peck this gold medal was to win? Unbelievable. Game by Hellebuck.
Tim Wildmon He was our best player tonight by a mile.
Dr. Jessica Peck Unbelievable game. Unreal game by our team. That's American hockey right there.
Ed Vitagliano You not only have that as a reminder, you get that as a reminder, too.
Dr. Jessica Peck Did that just show about this game?
Tim Wildmon Just m. I'm lucky I'm from the best country in the world.
Fred Jackson We got great dentists there, too, so.
Tim Wildmon We got great dentists there, too. That's funny.
Ed Vitagliano It was. What I loved about that is that he was. He did not say that he was embarrassed to be from America. Not all the U.S. olympic, teammates. Now, I'm talking about the hot hockey. I'm talking about some of the other sports. There were some in interviews that. That knocked the US and their own country. Their own country.
Jack Hughes says he loves the United States during interview ahead of Olympics
And listen, we've got our problems, but I said this, you know, a week or so ago. If the US Is paying for you to go to and, and train and then compete and go to the, you know, the Olympics, just don't talk politics when you're interviewed. Just talk about the sports. And then when you get home, you can. You're free agent. You can say whatever. That's part of what's great about the country. But it was very refreshing to hear Jack Hughes, unapologetically say, I love the United States. I love my country. And all these other athletes love their country, their countries, and, as they. As they should. None of those countries are perfect either.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson So, yeah, for the most part, it's NHL players, who play. Halibuk, who played the great Goldie for the United States, plays, for Winnipeg, one of my favorite teams. And my only message to Mr. Hellebuck is you better play as well when you get home.
Tim Wildmon To win a home. As you did in the Olympics.
Fred Jackson As you did in the Olympics.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I'll tell you that. So the, So the U.S. wins the gold, Canada wins the silver, and, there was some other good hockey teams.
Ed Vitagliano Well, Finland, I think, won the bronze.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, you got to keep.
Ed Vitagliano Well, the U.S. and Canada each made it to this final by winning in overtime against another country. So there were a lot of good teams playing. And, it's. It's a. It's a fun sport to watch when you're. When the Olympics are on.
Fred Jackson I think it's going to be great for hockey. the last time the United States won The gold was 46 years ago.
Ed Vitagliano It was 1980. When the college kids beat the Soviet Union. Yes, at the time, probably. Yeah. Miracle on ice.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson I was in Bible school in Springfield, Missouri, and I did watch that game.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson Here's what's interesting. Yesterday's game was 22nd February, 46 years to the day.
Ed Vitagliano To the day.
Tim Wildmon Oh, really?
Fred Jackson To the day. Wow, that's amazing. And when that big win in 1980 for the United States, hockey just took off in this country.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah.
Fred Jackson Just took off. And I'm hoping the same thing happens again.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Fred: So the winter, uh, Olympic Games are over now
All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio. So the winter, Olympic Games are over now, and they've been held, obviously, if you paid any attention at all, in Milan, Italy. And I don't know where they, where they got a schedule four years from now. Do you know if they said yet?
Ed Vitagliano I don't know.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right. what's your first other story, Fred?
There are millions of people affected by this winter storm in the Northeast
Fred Jackson First other story. Well, the folks up in the Northeast are undergoing, what we call a nor'.
Tim Wildmon Easter. Judgment of God.
Fred Jackson Nor'. Easter. it's not good. there are millions of people affected by this. They are under orders to basically stay at home. Don't even try to get out, because in some places, over 20 inches of snow, high winds, winds are coming down.
Tim Wildmon These are blizzard conditions.
Fred Jackson Oh, absolutely. it's a cyclone. Bomb or bomb cyclone or something. They're calling it like that.
Tim Wildmon That.
Fred Jackson And of course, because m. The major networks are based in NewSong York. You're getting a lot of coverage today on this. but it's, it's, it's bad and it's not over yet.
Tim Wildmon Well, it's probably affecting, you know, a fifth of the country's population.
Fred Jackson Yeah, I would guess 40 million. 40 million people.
Tim Wildmon Okay, maybe, maybe not a fifth, but
Fred Jackson a bunch of folks.
Tim Wildmon a lot of people. A lot of our fellow Americans going through this. Massachusetts, Maine.
Fred Jackson Massachusetts, Maine, NewSong York City, Vermont,
Tim Wildmon all the way down Philadelphia.
Fred Jackson And they say even some areas of North Carolina are being affected by this. West Virginia, Virginia.
Ed Vitagliano Now, when you say it's not over yet, I'm looking at one of the, news, broadcasts that we have streaming in our own studio here. It looked like there was another storm coming from the West. Is that more snow?
Fred Jackson This is going to hang around a while.
Ed Vitagliano Okay.
Fred Jackson the worst of it is hurt in certain areas right now. But you know what? If you were in NewSong York, you could get a job shoveling snow. they were hiring people.
Ed Vitagliano You mean the city government pays people?
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano 20, 1 bucks an hour.
Fred Jackson The socialist communist Mayor Mamdani, offering people up to 20 bucks an hour. However, there's a stipulation. If you wanted to show up to work hourly to shovel snow, you had a show id,
Ed Vitagliano five pieces of ID or something. When you first sign up.
Fred Jackson When you first sign up, they want to know that you're there legally.
Tim Wildmon I thought the Democrats didn't believe in id.
Ed Vitagliano Not for voting.
Tim Wildmon Well, I thought it was racist.
Ed Vitagliano Well, only when you're talking about voting, not shoveling snow.
Tim Wildmon So, we all heard this expression I'm about to use before. Let me make sure I understand this. You're saying that in NewSong York City that you can get a job, a temporary job, shoveling snow.
Tim Wildmon But in order to meet the application requirements, you have to show id. That is you are who you say you are. However, if you want to go vote, then you don't have to show an id. Is that. Or at least you don't have to show.
Ed Vitagliano Or at least a register. It depends on the state. Some, you don't have to show an ID to. But Democrats, the register.
Tim Wildmon A lot of Democrats do say that requiring a, an ID to vote is, is discriminatory.
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Tim Wildmon And, and is, is Jim, Crow 2.0. Yeah. So what's the saying now? Jim Snow.
Ed Vitagliano Jim Snow 2.0.
Tim Wildmon this is Jim Snow 2.0.
Ed Vitagliano Listen, I, I'm fine with them. If the city's going to pay people to. These are called emergency snow shovelers.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Okay, so they're like, you know, the city's got the plows, but they need other people to, you know, help with, you know, shoveling, getting some of the smaller areas opened. I think it smart idea to have these emergency snow shovelers and to know who's doing it because you're paying them out of the city's, tax funds. So you want to make sure that these people aren't signing up and then going to Dunkin Donuts instead of shoveling. So that's fine.
Tim Wildmon How are they going to tell that anyway?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I, there may be some way where they've got to, you know, take pictures of what they've shoveled. I'm not sure how they handle it.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano But I think it's a smart idea for them to know, and for you to have to sign up because it's not cheap amounts of money that they're going to be paying out where
Tim Wildmon you need robots, am I right?
Ed Vitagliano Well, yeah, as long as they're only armed with a shovel.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Well, this is going to shut down the Northeast for a few days anyway.
Fred Jackson Well, tremendous impact on the whole country when it comes to flights. Flight Aware is reporting just thousands of flights already canceled.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Fred Jackson So this has an impact on the whole nation.
Ed Vitagliano It has a ripple effect on the rest of the country.
Fred Jackson Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Power. A lot of people out of power. Yeah, power.
Steve Jordal texted me saying the 2030 Olympics are in the French Alps
What are you going to say?
Ed Vitagliano I was going to say, by the way, are we done with this story here? Because, Steve Jordal was listening. He, texted me and said the 2030 Olympics is in the French Alps, France.
Tim Wildmon Is that where the French Alps are in, in France?
Ed Vitagliano Yes.
Fred Jackson As opposed to.
Tim Wildmon Well, thank you for clearing that up for us.
Ed Vitagliano Well, okay, wise guys, both of you.
Tim Wildmon All right. you know, NewSong York City is in the state of NewSong York. Did you realize that?
Ed Vitagliano okay. You know, I try to, I try to help, try to help our listeners.
Tim Wildmon I couldn't resist. I'm sorry.
Ed Vitagliano I'm saying it's right here. This is what it says, the French Alps, comma, France. So your problem is with the Olympic, the International Olympic Committee putting that up like that.
Fred Jackson Yeah. And North Americans will suffer again because that means another seven hour time zone.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, this, this is. Yeah, I'm just gonna have, to make sure I'm sick that Sunday. That's a long way away.
Tim Wildmon Like four years.
New York City is preparing for its first major snowstorm since 2017
All right, well, anyway, this, this, this blizzard, what is it? NewSong York City on the first Blizzard since 2017. They were just. There was still snow left that unmelted from two weeks ago.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, the big ice storm that went
Tim Wildmon before they, before this happened. before this happens. So I don't know. we'll see. but I can't imagine. You're gonna have to find some young men, to shut. Maybe young ladies. But you can't just, get out there and shovel for six, seven hours.
Fred Jackson Oh, no.
Ed Vitagliano I mean, you can't do it for six. And I've shared this story, I think during the, during the blizzard of 78, I was, I was going to Boston College. That, that was that big storm. I forget how much snow it dumped. But my roommates and I, we said, let's go make some money. And we, you know, whatever, we borrowed some snow shovels and we went door to door, you know, 20 bucks and we'll shovel your walkway and your sidewalk. And we lasted about three hours because that heavy wet snow. Now listen, I was playing ball all, you know, all the time, very, very active. And I was wiped out after three hours because you're trudging through the snow back and forth. So I don't know anybody can do that. For seven or eight hours there, that's a man's man. That's Chuck Norris level manhood. If you can shovel snow, that much snow for seven or eight hours.
Tim Wildmon Well, yeah, and, ah, you have to
Fred Jackson be in really good shape. There was a warning. They had a doctor interviewed this morning on Fox and Friends. And just warning older folks, I've seen it so many times, you'll drop dead. Heart attacks caused by this. So there's a caution there. If you can hopefully stay at home. Not too much in the way of power losses. Just stay at home until this gets through.
Tim Wildmon You know, there's gonna be some stories years from now about babies being born. yes. At home today and tomorrow. Because listen, these people you're talking about. I know, I know the folks in the Northeast are hardy, right? You know, and they're, they're used to winters that can be brutal, but this is extraordinary. And they can't even get the streets, clean with the soap plows before the snow piles up again. They're telling people, stay home, don't have electricity. Ambulances can't get everywhere.
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon so you're going to have, you know, the ambulances are probably going to have to pick and choose, you know, where can we go? So I'm just saying I'm gonna bet some, some babies are born and that,
Ed Vitagliano that's a scary thought. Where your wife goes into labor and. Yeah, just like, what do I do?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I don't know. You know, they have YouTube videos. Do it yourself. Have you seen these?
Ed Vitagliano Well, you mean with home?
Tim Wildmon D, do it yourself.
Ed Vitagliano Oh, D, D Y I D
Tim Wildmon Y I D, I Y can type in D Y I. Childbirth.
Ed Vitagliano diy. Okay.
Tim Wildmon Baby delivery.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, but that, but you have to have a, power to have the Internet.
Tim Wildmon That's what happens when I do that. Okay, what now you got to have
Ed Vitagliano power and you have the Internet.
Tim Wildmon Just go old school. No, I'm talking midwife. Do you understand? Do you?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Ah, YouTube video.
Tim Wildmon You know what I'm saying? I'm sorry. Yes. M. I'm not. I don't mean to disparage you at all.
Ed Vitagliano I'm asking today, but that's all right.
Tim Wildmon Do you know what I'm talking about?
Ed Vitagliano You. So I'll just go home.
Tim Wildmon All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay.
You can look up YouTube videos to deliver your baby if you've got power
I'm gonna type, baby delivery. Do it yourself. That's what I'm talking about. You.
Ed Vitagliano Could you make it.
Tim Wildmon Do it.
Ed Vitagliano I don't know if you want to look at that.
Tim Wildmon Well, true. Do it yourself.
Ed Vitagliano And while you're doing that, I was making was. Yeah. You can look up a YouTube video to deliver your baby if you've got power and Internet.
Tim Wildmon Well, that's true. Then you're out. You're completely on. Out of luck. Huh?
Ed Vitagliano Now you're opening the window and saying,
Tim Wildmon hey, you're just gonna have to.
Fred Jackson We need your help.
Tim Wildmon Talk about figuring out as you go along.
Fred Jackson I can just imagine husbands looking at those videos. Honey, I ain't doing that. Can you hold on for a while?
Tim Wildmon First thing that comes up on do it yourself. Baby delivery.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon It says, ah, assisted or emergency. Quote, do it yourself. Child delivery carries high risk of complications. That's a bad situation. Anyway, it says first thing you need to do is call 911. Yeah. To avoid having to deliver the baby. But in this situation I'm talking about with this blizzard and the ambulances. Can't get out, babe. And you can't get your car out of your driveway to get to the hospital, probably a lot of folks planned on, you know, I don't know, go stay at a hotel right by the hospital or something. I don't know. But, anyway, you can look up videos on how to deliver babies yourself.
Fred Jackson To your point. To your point, though, right there.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I'm looking at this at home.
Tim Wildmon Unmedicated water birth.
Fred Jackson no, our birth story.
Tim Wildmon So you can do it. Can be done.
Fred Jackson The one good thing about snowstorms, blizzards, you get plenty of warning that it's coming.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's true.
Fred Jackson So nowadays, if you're nine months along.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Fred Jackson You. Maybe you want to get to a hotel within walking distance of the hospital.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah.
Three old guys trying to solve problem of delivering babies right without. Back in my day. All right, so you're listening to today's issues
All right, so you're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Thanks for listening to afr. Tim. Ed, Fred. nobody.
Ed Vitagliano Three old guys trying to solve this problem of delivering babies right without.
Tim Wildmon Back in my day. Ah, back in my day. All right, Fred, what's your next story?
Former DEA acting administrator says it's not safe to travel to Mexico right now
Fred Jackson Well, in the midst of everything else going on yesterday, some videos started to show up of what's going on in the Puerto Vallarta area of Mexico. What happened is Mexican authorities took out one of the cartel leaders and their followers. Cartel followers just, went ballistic in that area. They basically. It looked like a war zone in Beirut or something like that. in Puerto Vallarta yesterday, people staying. It's a resort area of Mexico, and you have people there from all over the world taking a vacation, and they were told, stay in your hotels. Do not go outside. because the cartel members, they were. There were explosions on buses. there were warnings in airports. Airlines canceled flights into Puerto Vallarta because of the danger there. And, Fox this morning spoke to former DEA acting administrator Derek Maltz and says basically it's not safe to travel to Mexico right now. Cut number eight.
Tim Wildmon Well, let me just go back to one thing to make it clear. President Trump, before he got elected, said placing the safety and security of Americans would be the top priority.
Dr. Jessica Peck And he's a man of action.
Tim Wildmon So to answer your question about the Americans, no, it's very dangerous in Mexico. It's been dangerous there for many years. Right now this is a wake up call for the world about the treachery of the Mexican cartels.
Dr. Jessica Peck That's why President Trump declared them as terrorists.
Tim Wildmon Would the Americans want to go visit, you know, the middle of Al Qaeda central? Right. So right now, what we're witnessing, especially on social media, it highlights the level of control and power the cartels have in Mexico. They're blowing up buses, they're shutting down roads, there's blockades in up to 20 states. They're burning buildings. Right.
Fred Jackson Yeah. The United States State Department has issued a warning to Americans. shelter in place, get a safe place wherever you are in Mexico right now. Because the cartels, you mean, all over the country are retaliating. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Puerto Vallarta, is that the way you pronounce it, is a, it's a beach resort, very famous in, on the Pacific coast of, of Mexico. And yeah, this is going to hurt tourism at least temporarily, probably all over Mexico.
Ed Vitagliano I would go down there right now. I wouldn't go down there.
Tim Wildmon Even before this, we, Allison and, I, we've been to Cancun many times, over our lives, and we've really, really enjoyed. It's a beautiful place. And, and, and the, it's. But I wouldn't go today. Yeah. You know, because of the, you know, maybe in the future. I'm not saying. But, it's just like these drug cartels, I guess they, they, they, they run the government or I, say run the government. They don't. Evidently they don't completely run the government because the government's at war with the drug cartels. But I mean, they have more power than many government officials and they assassinate the ones that they don't like.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Mayors and such.
Tim Wildmon They do, yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Sometimes in horrifying ways. And the part of the problem for Mexico is the country is very corrupt. So you have political leaders on all levels who are basically informants for the drug cartels.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. So a lot of corruption.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And, in the country of Mexico, Mexican people are great.
Ed Vitagliano The, they got to live under this.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano The Mexican people.
Tim Wildmon But it's a cycle that's hard to break.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Once the, once the mafia, so to speak, gets control of the, of the city block, they don't give it back very easily.
Ed Vitagliano Plus, the money they make is a huge part of the Mexican economy. You mean drugs, Drugs, human trafficking, all that?
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Anyway, yeah, that's. So the people there that are vacationing are trying to get out, but the airport's closed and. Or at least the American and, Canadian Airlines are not flying in there right now. We'll be back momentarily. Stay with us.
Ed Vitagliano The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle. Vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app, we would
Fred Jackson like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time, she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com.
Tim Wildmon This is today's issues.
Ed Vitagliano Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of today's issues.
If you're ever caught in a blizzard, here's what you need to do
Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Fred. In a few minutes, Ed's going to be going over what he's found out about do it do it yourself baby delivery. which we've explored on our YouTube search here.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah, I'll create a list of,
Tim Wildmon if you would, and then put that on our Facebook for folks, things to do. Well, yeah, we're talking.
Fred Jackson If you're ever caught in a blizzard, here's what you need to do.
Tim Wildmon What do you call do it yourself do it yourself.
Ed Vitagliano Diy.
Tim Wildmon Huh?
Ed Vitagliano Diy.
Tim Wildmon Diy. They're Very popular.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely. We should get in on that.
Tim Wildmon So we. We might. We might do a demonstration of some kind.
Ed Vitagliano well, I'm gonna leave that demonstration for you. I'm doing all the research.
Tim Wildmon Our listeners may be wondering to themselves what in the world brought this subject up? Because Tim usually keeps the show right on track, and somehow he's been, misled by Fred and Ed here. No, what happened was, we were talking about, in all seriousness, the blizzard hitting the northeast right now. And, you know, there are a lot of babies that planned to be born yesterday or today or tomorrow, the next day. And it's got to be just chaos there, you know, because you can't travel when you got 12 inches of snow.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah. And can the ambulance get their emergency.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Vehicles. So, we're saying what would happen in that situation. And then you mentioned the do it yourself, you know, videos, and we looked it up, and sure enough, there are instructions and videos about how to. How to do that.
Tim Wildmon How to birth a baby at home or in the car or wherever you may be. The mall, whatever.
Ed Vitagliano Dunkin Donuts, you know, whatever.
Tim Wildmon Wherever you may be.
Ed Vitagliano Starbucks.
Dr. Andy Miller is the president of Wesley Biblical Seminary
Tim Wildmon All right, so, All right, let's reset right here. Okay. we have with us in our studio Dr. Andy Miller, who's the president of Wesley Biblical Seminary, based in Jackson, Mississippi. Good morning, Andy.
Dr. Jessica Peck Well, good to see you, Tim. So good to be back.
Tim Wildmon do you know anything about delivering babies at home?
Dr. Jessica Peck Not delivering them at home, but we did do, my. Our third child wasn't born at home, but was born with a midwife in a bathtub. That was pretty cool.
Ed Vitagliano Was it really? You can tell the truth.
Dr. Jessica Peck I will honestly say it was a. It was a beautiful thing because the midwife actually guided me. And then I was like. I was more active. And I'm going to try to not be too graphic here, but I was involved in the process, and it was a beautiful thing. I was the first one to really hold my daughter and put her right with my wife. Is a beautiful moment.
Tim Wildmon So.
Dr. Jessica Peck But not. Not without any other assistance. Right there. My. You know, I was thinking beyond just having the home birth to do diy, birthing is the fact that nine months from now, with the result of these blizzards, there'll be a baby bump.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Be a new baby boomer American family.
Dr. Jessica Peck This is good. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Let's. Let's boost that, birth rate.
Dr. Jessica Peck More blizzards. More blizzards.
Tim Wildmon More babies.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Or more babies born. So, I did get it right. You guys are Based in Jackson, Mississippi. Right.
Dr. Jessica Peck Technically, we're in Ridgeland now.
Ed Vitagliano Ridgeland, which is a suburb.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Just north Ridgeland, Mississippi. Wesley Biblical Seminary. People listen to afr. They know, we promote the ministry that you guys have there. you train. what's your primary purpose?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, yeah. We exist to develop trusted leaders for faithful churches. And while our name shows our theological tradition that we come from the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, we have students from more than 40 denominations and students all over the world. we're able to bring theological education right to students where they are. Most of our students are serving churches right now. in. Most churches in the United States, of course, are served by, pastors who are bi. Vocational. I'm trying to change that language a little bit to say co. Vocational. But it's really this interesting emphasis that we're able to have. Seminaries used to be set up in a way where people would move away, sell their houses, go and live in a place for four years. But really what we can do with zoom and opportunities to engage people in a distributed platform makes it possible for
Tim Wildmon us to 40 different denominations.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, yeah, yeah. We have 600 plus students.
Tim Wildmon All right, I got $10 for you right now. If you can name 20 of them, just go.
Dr. Jessica Peck Okay, I'm glad to.
Name 20 denominations in the next three minutes. You can do it. So you're going to wait
Tim Wildmon Here we go.
Ed Vitagliano So you're going to wait?
Tim Wildmon I'm going to make it. I'm going to make a $20 contribution.
Dr. Jessica Peck Okay.
Tim Wildmon To Wesley Biblical Seminary. If he can, name 20 denominations in the next three minutes, I'll be pretty close.
Ed Vitagliano I thought you meant the students. Name 20 students. So.
Dr. Jessica Peck Okay.
Ed Vitagliano Talking about the denomination.
Dr. Jessica Peck Global Methodist, Independent Methodist, Free Methodist, Protestant, Methodist, Independent Methodist, Salvation Army, Nazarene, Wesleyan, Congregational Methodist, Baptist, Southern Baptist.
Ed Vitagliano You can do it.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, yeah. Assemblies of God, Church of God, Anderson Church of God, Cleveland.
Tim Wildmon Six more Church Ah.
Dr. Jessica Peck Of God, Cleveland. Then I have Anglican Church of North America, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the,
Ed Vitagliano Two more.
Dr. Jessica Peck So who else do I have? Oh, Pilgrim Holiness Tradition, the Primitive Methodist.
Ed Vitagliano That's it. You made it.
Dr. Jessica Peck British Methodist Church.
Tim Wildmon All right.
Dr. Jessica Peck There we go.
Ed Vitagliano That's impressive.
Tim Wildmon What about the, Snake Handlers of America?
Dr. Jessica Peck Well, I bet I have a few of those, too.
Tim Wildmon Do you accredit them?
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, I forgot all the African American Tradition. Kojik, Amy, Amy Z. All those groups.
Tim Wildmon Oh, the African American denomination.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Did you say Pilgrim? What?
Dr. Jessica Peck Pilgrim Holiness.
Tim Wildmon I've never heard of this.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, it's a Northeastern group. They're still. They. They combine. Most of them combine with the West. the Wesleyan church? Yeah, about 40 years ago.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Dr. Jessica Peck but, there's still a little group of people.
There are churches where they handle snakes. Would you go to one
Ed Vitagliano Nice, nice shout out though, to Showa snake handlers of America.
Tim Wildmon There are churches where they handle snakes. Have you heard about this?
Ed Vitagliano Of course I've heard of it.
Tim Wildmon Have you ever seen terrifying?
Ed Vitagliano No, I've never seen.
Tim Wildmon Would you go to one?
Ed Vitagliano No.
Dr. Jessica Peck There is the Pentecostal holiness tradition, you know, uses the end of Mark. there's variants of it. I should say so. They might, but some of them would say it's not all of them. But you know, the last part of Mark talks about snake handling, but that's been shown to be, later variant that was added on, you know, centuries later. So people use that tradition.
Ed Vitagliano Let me just give you just a little personal experience. So back when I was pastoring, okay, Working here full time, I was co.
Fred Jackson a.
Ed Vitagliano What did you call it?
Dr. Jessica Peck A co. Vocation.
Ed Vitagliano Co vocational. And I went to visit a young man who was trying to win to the Lord. And he invited me into his apartment and he, had snakes. And so I'm talking to him, he said, I want to. I want to show you one of my snakes. I said, no, that's. That's okay. I don't. I don't want to see it. And he brings out a rattlesnake.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh my goodness.
Tim Wildmon A rattlesnake in a jar.
Ed Vitagliano No, in his hands.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh my.
Ed Vitagliano And I said, I'm, just going to call him John.
Tim Wildmon Say what you said.
Ed Vitagliano no, I said, john, get that snake away from. He says he. If you don't make any sudden moves, he won't bite. And then he let it down on the couch. And I got up and I said, dude, put it away or I'm. I'm gone. He's.
Tim Wildmon Yeah.
Dr. Jessica Peck Now me too.
Ed Vitagliano He got. Just to show you, he got bit twice over the years, once in the face with. By a rattlesnake.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh my. I would be done.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Hard to feel sorry for him though.
Ed Vitagliano So when you ask me what, I go to a church handling service. Nursery. Bob.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Sorry I asked that question.
Ed Vitagliano I don't blame you.
Tim Wildmon You and I've known each other a long time. I never knew that. Yeah, that story.
Ed Vitagliano That.
Tim Wildmon That was m. Bring up pts.
Ed Vitagliano Ptsd.
Tim Wildmon They can do that.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Having to recall that story, that is.
Ed Vitagliano I'm gonna have to leave the show for. I'm, have to go eat something.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Buddy Smith: Wesley Biblical Seminary is developing biblical leaders for churches
On a more serious note, what do you. What do you, Tell me what. Who. Who. Our listeners. What do they need to Know about Wesley Biblical Seminary?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, yeah.
Tim Wildmon How can they connect with you guys?
Dr. Jessica Peck Look, if people are looking for a seminary that values and lifts up the authority of scripture and the real promise that exists in the holy life, like emphasizing sanctification, I think we're the seminary for you. And also we have this platform that brings it to people. So that's led to us, just in the last three years, we've more than doubled our size. We have 600 plus students.
Ed Vitagliano this is really important. All joking about snakes aside, this is really important because if America is going to survive and fulfill its promise, the pulpits of America have to be filled with Bible believing, fire breathing, not afraid to preach it. Preachers.
Dr. Jessica Peck That's my new logo.
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yes, yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano So the seminaries in this country in a lot of denominations and in a lot of places here in this country have gone to the devil.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah.
Ed Vitagliano Okay. They do not believe and teach the, the Bible. They don't believe it. And they're turning out people who are feeling pulpits that are not, they're false shepherds.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano I'm not saying all, I'm just saying a lot of them, they've gone over to promote homosexuality and, and many ways, many paths to God. So what Wesley Biblical Seminary is doing is very important. And it sounds to me, by the way, we're talking to Dr. Andy Miller, President of Wesley Biblical Seminary, that if people Let me. So let me ask if. What if people don't necessarily feel called to the ministry but they want to learn more?
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
Ed Vitagliano You take them.
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh yeah, yeah. 100. That's why I say developing trusted leaders for faithful churches. So a lot of our students are coming who are like Sunday school class teachers or local lay leaders in various forms. And that's one of the key things I think that is needed. People want to go deeper and they, they, I think the academic rigor that we provide and we were fully accredited and all those things by the kind of gold standard accrediting bodies. I think people want deep teaching and they want that. So they want that in their preachers, but they want it themselves. So we have a host of programs that people can access from bachelor's, master's, doctoral degrees, but also something called the Wesley Institute, which is emphasizing these non academic programs to give seminary level teaching to people who are lay leaders or just lay members of the church.
Ed Vitagliano Wonderful.
Tim Wildmon All right, how to get in touch with you guys?
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, WBS Edu Wesley Biblical Seminary. We'd love for you to Check us out.
Tim Wildmon And so you got how many students now?
Dr. Jessica Peck We have 634 students today.
Tim Wildmon Wow.
Dr. Jessica Peck And your dad was supporting us back when we had 20.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, one of the reasons my dad did that, as you know, is because the way the United Methodist Church was trending and I grew up in the United Methodist Church, as did many of our listeners, and we know what happened to them. They just went totally left wing wacko, and started, I mean, started denying the authority of the scripture.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yep, yep.
Tim Wildmon in many ways. And I don't know, I don't know how to describe the whole story of what happened there. It happened with other denominations too, during the 60s and 70s and, and so my dad, said, well, we need to support a conservative Methodist or a Bible believing Methodist institution. Yeah, yeah, Asbury, and was one and then Wesley Biblical Seminary, another, Asbury in Kentucky. So, you, know to get away, we need to start pushing people of the Methodist tradition and others, as you mentioned here, to where they can go to get the proper training to be a pastor. Do you guys accredit pastor?
Dr. Jessica Peck Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. So we work with all those denominations that have a formal ordination process.
Tim Wildmon Ordination, that's the word I was looking for. So, anyway, so thank God that you guys came along and as I mentioned some others, but man, these,
Ed Vitagliano then our own Buddy Smith hasn't. He worked closely with.
Dr. Jessica Peck Buddy's on our board. He's a wonderful blessing to us. Yeah. So thankful for AFA. AFR's influence on WBS. It's a big part of our day.
Ed Vitagliano You got another $20 coming.
Dr. Jessica Peck I know, 25.
Tim Wildmon I'm gonna have to go atm.
Dr. Jessica Peck Hey, we could do ven.
Tim Wildmon I don't carry cash. I don't do that either. I'm sorry, I'm like old school.
Ed Vitagliano Like what? You're old school but you don't carry cash?
Tim Wildmon I don't. I just go anyway, I'm not trying
Ed Vitagliano to put you on the spot.
Tim Wildmon That's okay.
Ed Vitagliano But you did promise on national radio.
Tim Wildmon I don't even know how much money I have. that's sad, isn't it? I just. Allison, my wife, she does all the bookkeeping.
Dr. Andy Miller: If you rob me, you're very disappointed
Ed Vitagliano So you like walk into random banks and say, do you have some of
Tim Wildmon my money account here?
Fred Jackson Would you check? Thank you.
Dr. Jessica Peck Yeah, thanks.
Ed Vitagliano God bless you all.
Tim Wildmon Dr. Andy Miller, joining us there, president of Wesley Biblical Seminar. Yeah, if, if you're going to rob me, you're going to be very disappointed.
Ed Vitagliano You're going to have to contact someone
Tim Wildmon in charge, somebody else, because, that's,
The United States may attack Iran within days, not weeks, experts say
All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Ed and Fred. Fred, what's the next story?
Fred Jackson I tell you what, so much going on in the world right now, and sometimes the really big stories, such as, the United States may attack Iran within days, not weeks. probably, if you had time during the weekend, you heard the reports of the buildup of our military forces in that area in the Indian Ocean. are. We've got at least four squadrons of fighter jets now in places like Jordan. By the way, what I heard this morning, we have a base, the United States has a base in Qatar, and we've asked our. Told our military people there to get out of there. So everything is pointing towards some kind of military action. Former National Security, Council Chief of staff under Trump, Alex Gray, says President Trump has several options to deal with Iran. Cut number seven.
Ed Vitagliano I think the best outcome for the United States here is the president uses a surgical strike to go after the missile program. The terrorist proxies keep them from reconstituting. I really do worry, and I know the president, just based on his history and what he said for the last 10 years, shares this concern, is that if we go in and we do something more, comprehensive, we're potentially going to get dragged into something we can't control. And so I think a strike that is tailored, surgical, targeted, and is very much focused on taking out the most dangerous elements of the regime's tools is most in the interest of the United States.
Fred Jackson Yeah. Now, some people may say, hey, we did a great job in Venezuela with Maduro, so we can do the same thing in Iran. And I don't think you can say that. I don't think it's going to be as simple. Iran is very different than Venezuela.
Tim Wildmon Well, okay, listen, I know Iran, Iran or Iran, however you want to pronounce it. you know, they're one of the worst players on the world stage in terms of their. You know, we've dealt with them for decades. Okay, why are we doing this now? And what is President Trump hoping to accomplish? What is the goals and objectives here?
Ed Vitagliano Well, I think there are two main things, according to my understanding. I'm not privy to any information that anyone else can glean through the news. But the two things that stand out to me are, number one, the, continuing effort of Iran to get a nuclear weapon. Now, we've already hit them once but it sounds to me like they are trying to reconstitute that program. And so President Trump has made it clear, and as have other presidents, but he's the first one to strike them. We're not going to allow Iran, who is maybe the leading, probably the leading, promoter of terrorism around the world, we're not going to allow them to get a nuclear weapon. And number two, the other thing that is maybe, and this answers your question, maybe even a little bit better, Tim, is that Iran seems in the last couple of months or whatever to have been closer than ever before to changing regimes and, and overthrowing the Ayatollah slash Mullah led religious leadership of Iran and maybe having some kind of a pro Western, more free, country. And I think that there's probably consideration that if we strike facets of the government that might encourage the Iranians who are trying to make that regime change, and maybe even the military change their minds and turn against the mullahs. That's all I can think of.
Fred Jackson Well, and to Ed's point, the rebellion that's been going on there, and the reports indicate that the, regime has killed thousands of these protesters. You may remember back a few weeks ago, President Trump won. These protests broke out and they're huge. President Trump said, what? Help is on the way. So, he almost put himself in a position and putting the United States in a position that if we were to back away now, if we were to back away now, it would not be good. Mike Pompeo, the former secretary, of state, he says Iran is not interested really in making a deal. They are not interested. They're talking that way, but in no way are they interested in any caps on their development of nuclear energy and a nuclear weapon. And they're in no way interested in cutting back on their ballistic missile development as well. They remain a very dangerous character in that area of the world. And if the United States was to back down now, no telling what would happen. Our current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is going back to Israel this week within 48 hours, I believe, to have a meeting on this. I think we are headed in the direction of some kind of confrontation.
Tim Wildmon Okay. There is a difference between a, what that fellow was mentioning a moment ago, a surgical strike, which you can do with one warship. Am I right?
Fred Jackson Yeah. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so a surgical strike, which was what he said, which is the least, use of force. I, mean, there's a difference between that and help is on the way. We're going to kill the Leaders that are oppressing you, and we're going to bomb them to oblivion. It's going to be a new day in Iran. You see the, you, ah, those are two different things. Am I right?
Ed Vitagliano Right.
Tim Wildmon Regime, which one is it we're going to do here?
Ed Vitagliano I think, I think, I think if President Trump is going to do this, going to pull the trigger and attack Iran, I think he wants regime change for the very simple reason that the, the mullahs, because of their religious mania and because of their hatred of Israel and the United States, they are never going to stop wanting to get nuclear weapons and use them against those two countries and probably threaten other countries, in the Middle East. So I think it's going to be the latter. I don't think this is just going to be a surgical strike. We already did this. We already hit them and set them back, and now they have been going full bore to try to reconstitute that nuclear program.
It seems to me what we're about to do requires congressional approval
Tim Wildmon Okay, may I interject something that's not going to be popular with some of our listeners?
Ed Vitagliano Sure.
Tim Wildmon It seems to me what we're about to do requires congressional approval. We're about what you guys have described as an act of war. Now, you might say, well, we haven't had a congressionally approved war since World War II. I don't know. Korean War was a Korean War.
Ed Vitagliano I don't ever declared war, certainly didn't declare it into it.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, maybe. Do you guys see what I'm saying?
Ed Vitagliano Yeah.
Tim Wildmon does it matter anymore?
Ed Vitagliano No.
Tim Wildmon okay. It doesn't matter. Whoever the president is gets to do what he wants to.
Ed Vitagliano Well, because of the War Powers act, this was in the wake of Vietnam, where the. Technically, the president is allowed, because things move, circumstances move so quickly. The president is allowed to commit military troops to a conflict and then, inform Congress, but then has 30 days. I think I get this right, 30 or 60. I think it's 30 days to then get congressional approval. Well, we, I don't know that we've had much in the way of congressional approval. But presidents now, whether it's, you know, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, we're allowed to turn the military loose, without congressional approval. But to your point, it is.
Tim Wildmon We're about to go to war with
Ed Vitagliano Iran, but we already hit them.
Tim Wildmon Yes, but that was. Yes. it's a, it's, that's, it's an
Ed Vitagliano act of a war.
Tim Wildmon It's an act of war. It's kind of a blurred line constitutionally, because you don't want your president the commander in chief, you don't certainly don't want his hands tied in the case of a national emergency where we need to respond militarily to some action in the world. But at the same time, if you're going to commit to a regime change and you're sending all these warships to the, Middle east, getting ready to, enact a regime change plan for Iran, then militarily, you're going to just bomb them into glass, basically.
Ed Vitagliano well, I would say targets. I think the targets would be more surgical. I think the possibility was. Certainly would hit their nuclear, development capabilities. But I don't think anything's off the table. I think if we're going to go to. If we're going to go to war and do this, we'll sink their navy, we'll destroy their air force, But I don't think we'll turn Iran into glass because we want the military to say, enough of this. We will perform a coup against the mullahs. And you want the people of Iran m. To be on your side and so you don't destroy their infrastructure.
Tim Wildmon I think if this were a Democrat president gearing up to do this, would our side be saying no? No, Wait a minute. You need congressional report before you get us involved in another foreign war.
Fred Jackson There might be some. But when it comes to Iran, that may be something that is bipartisan. Yes, I do believe.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Fred Jackson I mean, the. The jury's not out anymore. The jury. The jury has come back with. With a full, decision.
Tim Wildmon They're going to know where these mullahs are hiding and try to kill them.
Fred Jackson Yes.
Ed Vitagliano I personally don't think they should be killing political leaders. Okay. I think they should be taking out military infrastructure, and the nuclear. I don't. I don't believe in. In killing the leaders. Because that. That comes back to bite you.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Oh, antim. right there. You also don't believe in handling rattlesnakes.
Ed Vitagliano No, that's right. The religious expression that can come back bite you, too.
Tim Wildmon See what you did there? Yeah, I see what you did. That came back to bite you. You used it twice.
Ed Vitagliano Yep.
Tim Wildmon Both metaphorically.
Ed Vitagliano Absolutely. Because, I'm not going to be doing little. Literally.
Tim Wildmon We shall be back in five minutes with more.
Dr. Jessica Peck The views and opinions expressed in this
Tim Wildmon broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of
Dr. Jessica Peck the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim and Ed talk with Fred on top news headlines of the day including a discussion the U.S. and Iran. Also, Dr. Andy Miller joins the program to discuss Wesley Biblical Seminary.
Live
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